EDGOOSE:
In search of Ancestry
O'GRADY, Grace
- Yes, date unknown Has no ancestors but more than 100 descendants in this family tree.
1781 - Yes, date unknown-
Name O'GRADY, Grace Birth Ireland 
Gender Female Death Yes, date unknown Person ID I1836 Edgoose Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
Family JONES, Robert, b. Between 1780 and 1781, Sheriff Hales, Staffordshire, England d. Yes, date unknown Marriage Bef 1815 Ireland Children 1. JONES, Mary Elizabeth Grace, b. Between 1813 and 1814, At Sea d. 27 May 1888, Aberdeen, Brown County, South Dakota, USA (Age 75 years)Family ID F409 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
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Notes
GRACE O'GRADY
Valetta POWELL'S notes dated 1963:
"The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna
We buried him darkly at dead of night
The sods with our bayonets turning
By the struggling moonbeams misty light
And the lanterns dimly Burning
Not a shot was heard, not a funeral note
As his CORPSE to the ramparts we hurried
Not a soldier discharged a farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero was buried
My Gt Grandfather Trooper JONES was present. He eloped with my Gt Grandmother - Grace O'GRADY when stationed in Ireland with the Cavalry - He was a Welsh nonconformist & his bride a Roman Catholic of good family who disowned her in consequence - She went to war as a trooper's wife she was at the Battle of Waterloo. My Gt Grandmother was sent to England in a troopship as she was pregnant and my Grandmother Betsey Grace JONES was born at sea during the crossing & born (in the Camp) supposed to be lucky. She was their only child - & after Waterloo when the war ended - they settled in Algarkirk near Boston - Gr Grandfather JONES as an unemployed trooper still had his black mare "Poppit" which he'd ridden thro' the wars - & hhe had a job of Riding Post in the country district around Boston on Poppit. One market day he & his wife rode into Boston market - she on a horse & he on Poppit. He was drinking in the Red Lion(?) at the end of the day - & she rode on ahead to Algarkirk - in mounting in the inn yard he must have been intoxicated & fell over his horse on his head on the cobbled inn yard & was killed.
This is one of the reasons for my Mothers horror of drink handed down from her Mother - Betsey GRACE whose father died in this way. She was brought up as a Methodist - but I often heard my Mother refer to her strong Catholic flavoured principles no doubt passed on by her R.C. Grand Mother - i.e. Grace O'GRADY (JONES).
The widow Grace JONES somehow brought up her only child Betsey GRACE who married Joel EDGOOSE - one of the Dutch Engineers who at that time came to Lincolnshire to show how to drain the fens like Holland - i.e. land drains are still called DYKES in Lincolnshire - They had several children - Mother Harriet EDGOOSE being, I think, the youngest - She told me she remembered always being cold in the winter as she wore woollen dresses with no sleeves & low neck - & how she used to rub her poor arms blue with cold.
I have a dress belonging to my Grandmother Betsey Grace EDGOOSE of sprigged muslin showing she was very tiny - As a young girl my Mother Harriet used to stay with a Mrs. ARMSTRONG in Boston who was kind to her & to whom she confided her anxiety about their family poverty. I think Mother must have worked for Mrs. ARMSTRONG as she told me the first money she earned she bought as a present for her mother a small barrel of stout Porter? No doubt thinking it would be good for her - Throhroough the interest Mrs. ARMSTRONG took in her she planned to take a job as companion so as to help her family. I imagine her father was at this time dead - with a reference from Mrs. ARMSTRONG Mother went to the COCKERS of Belle Vue Hathersagsage a as nurse companion - She must have been very attractive with chestnut brown hair, brown eyes & rosy cheeks which she always had all her life - she was full of fun, I think an interesting mixture of her Irish Grandmothers adventurous spirit & the practical sensibility of her Dutch EDGOOSE father.
The fantastic story of her happiness with the COCKERS & eventual marriage to their only son John is another story - of which I know many details".
(revised 15.01.2012)